This Digital Humanities project, Asian Americans in the South, explores the history and culture of Asian Americans in the South. American history includes interesting and significant information about people and culture, but most of the interesting information goes unrecorded or undocumented. There is a part of American history that seems to be ignored for more than half a century, and that is Asian American history. Most people associate Asian American history and culture with the East Coast and West Coast; however, the South and the Midwest are either ignored or rarely noticed. When people of think of "Chinatown," the general consensus is San Francisco and/or New York City. Therefore, this project seeks to answer the following question: What do we know about Asian American history and culture in the South? I chose this focus because there is not enough information documented about the history, cultural venues, religions, community centers, events, and influential Asian Americans in the South.
Asian American history and culture should be included in the curriculums of American schools, colleges, and universities. I teach a course on Asian American Literature, and my students learn about Asian American history and culture in conjunction to the assigned readings by Asian American authors. They learn about the social and cultural conflicts of Asian Americans in mainstream culture. They also learn about historical information that most history textbooks do not include. In additon to including Asian American history and culture in academia, it should be available to the public. They can learn about the amazing people, places, events, and history of Asian Americans in the South. This project is in the beginning stages of development, and I plan to continue to add more information as I continue to conduct more research, network with more people, and learn to optimize the use of digital tools.
For now, I have posted an Exhibit with several pages to introduce the visitor to my site: History, Culture, Religion, Who's Who in the South, Bringing Awareness to the Community, and Asian American Towns in Texas. Each page includes images and brief comments. Also, some of the images include a geolocation for visual mapping.